D1 World All-Stars

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D1 drivers from six countries compete to see whose drifting technique is best.

By Justin Kaehler

After six years of events in Japan and four years of events in the U.S., the D1GP is now a true international motorsports event. D1 has had U.S. vs. Japan events for a couple of years now, but a motorsports battle between two countries can hardly be considered an "international" event. However, when six countries from three different continents get involved, the "international" tag suddenly seems a lot more appropriate.

D1 held its first-ever World All Stars event at the House of Drift, Irwindale Speedway. This invitation-only event brought out 39 of the best D1 drivers from Japan, the U.S., England, Ireland, Malaysia and New Zealand. We all know that the Japanese and American guys can drive, but the drivers from the other four countries were unknown quantities. They all won D1 events in their respective countries, but were these foreign drivers on-par with Japan's best, or were they still several years behind the U.S.?

The short answer is these guys can drive. To be honest, we were expecting to see the non-U.S./Japanese drivers to be about as good as the American guys were back in '03. Apparently, there is a lot of drifting talent in New Zealand, England, Ireland and Malaysia that the mainstream automotive media just hasn't picked up on yet. All of these drivers are as good as the guys here, and we're sure to hear more about them from here on out.

Japan didn't want to lose to another gaijin again this year (Vaughn Gittin Jr. won last year's All-Star match), so D1 champions like Yasuyuki Kazama, Ken Nomura and Nobushige Kumakubo were on-hand to represent Team Japan. The U.S. had its big dogs ready to go, too; Rhys Millen had his new Solstice up and running, Sam Hubinette was rocking his new Charger and Vaughn Gittin Jr.'s Mustang was running as strong as ever.

Representing Team New Zealand was Adam Richards in the red HKS Nissan S15, Victor Chapman and Darren McDonald in matching Nissan S13s and Sean Falconer in his RB26-powered S13. Rounding out Team New Zealand was Jairus Tamati Wharerau. Wharerau wasn't able to ship his own car over, so he had to borrow Vaughn Gittin Jr.'s old 240. Making the switch from a right-hand drive New Zealand-spec car to a left-hand drive U.S.-spec car made things a lot harder for Wharerau, but he did a damn good job of sliding this car around Irwindale's bank despite the fact that the steering wheel was on the "wrong side".

Also having to adjust to driving on the "wrong side" of the car was Team England's only driver, Phil Morrison, who was piloting the Mackin S13 for this event. Irish driver Damien Mulvey lucked out and was able to borrow Signal Auto's right-hand drive J-spec Nissan Silvia. The only European driver to actually ship a car over was Irishman Darren "Harry Potter" McNamara - he brought his Sony PSP-sponsored SR20-powered Toyota Corolla.

Team Malaysia was the only D1 team to boast royalty. AE86 driver Tengku Djan is said to be a descendant of the Malaysian royal family. Even if he isn't, Djan is the Malaysian D1 champ and a rally and GT driver. This man knows his way around a racetrack. Djan's teammate was Nissan 180 pilot Lim Zee King.

After the freezing cold weather and heavy rains the plagued the D1GP 2006 finals the night before, the weather for the D1 World All Star event was sunny and Southern California picture-perfect. The dry track conditions made it easier for every driver to really "push it" around Irwindale's bank. During the qualifying round, most drivers - including the likes of Falken G35 driver Calvin Wan and Bee-R Skyline pilot "Shotgun" Tezuka - were flinging their cars insanely close to clipping point 2's back wall, ripping off any banner that was unfortunate enough to get caught up in the cars' wakes.